Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a remote maintenance system having a remote maintenance function, an image forming apparatus, an external terminal, methods of controlling these, and mediums.
Description of the Related Art
In recent years, as functions of image forming apparatuses and troubleshooting actions become more complex, users have been frequently directly making questions to a call-center of a maker to obtain responses. Furthermore, in order to perform troubleshooting between the image forming apparatus and the call-center quickly, remote maintenance services by voice, moving image communication, and remote operation have been considered. In a remote maintenance service, by using a remote operation function, it is possible for the operator to see the screen of the image forming apparatus of the user. By this, the operator can confirm device setting information of the image forming apparatus of the user in addition to trouble information elicited from the user. Using such information, the operator can analyze the cause of the failure, and present an appropriate response method to the user.
It is desirable that the foregoing remote maintenance service be deployed in an image forming system for a production market. This is because an image forming system for a production market includes a wide variety of functions, and the difficulty level in mastering such complicated functions is high. As a result, it is envisioned that many users will request support of the call-center. In an image forming system for a production market, a configuration in which an image forming apparatus and a print server, whose objective is to extend a print function, are connected is typical.
There is a need for a function in which, in an image forming system in which an image forming apparatus and a print server are configured, information of both apparatuses is compiled, and displayed on a screen in order to improve user or serviceman operationality. In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H11-170627, integrating information of copy jobs that an image forming apparatus processes and print jobs that a print server processes, and transmitting it to an external apparatus is proposed. Also, a list of jobs sorted in processing order are displayed on a screen of an external apparatus.
However, there is a problem as is recited below in the foregoing conventional technique. As mentioned above, in an image forming system for a production market, a configuration in which an image forming apparatus and a print server are configured is typical. If a failure occurs in the image forming system, the cause of the failure may be the image forming apparatus, the print server, or both. Therefore, the operator of the call-center requires information of both the image forming apparatus and the print server in order to analyze the cause of the failure.
However, in techniques that have spread in recent years, the remote maintenance service for the image forming apparatus unit is assumed, and information of a print server connected to the image forming apparatus is not transmitted to the operator terminal. For this reason, cases in which the operator cannot specify the cause of a failure arise, and the troubleshooting of the user environment ends up being slow.
Also, in the foregoing conventional technique, usage during the remote maintenance service is not envisioned. Furthermore, the information of a job that is transmitted to the external apparatus is the status of the job, the user name, the number of pages, the number of copies, or the like, and is not something whose object is application in the analysis of the cause of a failure.